Asia's largest supercomputer production base established in Tianjin

17:07, November 01, 2010

The Specialty Association of Mathematical and Scientific Software (SAMSS), the Research and Development Center for Parallel Software, and the State Key Laboratory of Computer Science jointly published the list of the Top 10 High-Performance Computers of China on Oct. 28.

On the list, the "Tianhe-1" supercomputer in Tianjin and the product series developed and produced by the Dawning Computer Base in Tianjin ranked at the top in calculation speed and in market share, respectively. After the list was released, Tianjin immediately attracted the attention of many computer industry insiders.

On the top-10 list published by authoritative organizations, the technically upgraded "Tianhe-1" supercomputer jointly developed by the National University of Defense Technology and the Tianjin Binhai New Area, ranked at the top for its peak speed of 4.7 petaflops and sustained speed of 2.5 petaflops. Its peak and sustained speeds are both faster than the published records of the world’s supercomputers.

Currently, the "Tianhe-1" has been put into operation at the National Super Computing Center in the Tianjin Bainhai New Area.

Thirty-four high-performance computers developed and produced in the Dawning Computer Base also ranked in the top 100 of the list, indicating that the base's share in China's high-performance computer market has exceeded 30 percent. Among the 34 computers, the Nebula, China's first supercomputer capable of sustained computing of more than 1 petaflop, ranked second on the list with a sustained speed of nearly 1.3 petaflops. Furthermore, four Dawning series supercomputers ranked in the top-10 of the list.

The Dawning Computer Base started construction in Tianjin in July 2006. The industrial base covers an area of more than 4 hectares and can produce 100,000 servers a year after the first phase of the construction project was finished. At present, the second phase of the project has been partly finished. In the following two years, the base will be able to produce 500,000 PC servers and 2,000 high-performance computers a year and will become the largest production base of high-performance computers in Asia.

Because the Tianhe-1 has been put into use in Tianjin and the Dawning Computer Base will soon evolve into the largest production base of its kind in Asia, the city has decided to include the promotion of supercomputing applications in its 12th Five-Year Plan.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-1015), the Tianjin Binhai New Area will provide high-performance computing support to strategic emerging industries for more technological innovations and attach equal importance to high-tech public services, the development of the information industry, and the training of information technology specialists